Bright White Light
by J. H. Fee
Summary: (Chapter 2 up) A Trip to the mall turns into so much more when the X-men encounter two escapees from a mutant training facility.... (Read and review!)
1. Welcome to Bayville

Disclaimer: Everything belongs to Marvel except the OC's, which belong to me. Don't touch.

Authors Note: I hate Kitty's accent…and I can not write Kurt's…so I left those out. Kurt sometimes speaks in German, but without the accent, and Kitty speaks like a non-valley girl teenager. Anyway…Enjoy!

Prologue

            "Christy, let's go! The sensors are gonna come back on in ten minutes, and we need to be into the woods by then." The young man speaking was standing halfway in and halfway out of a small office, his gaze darting from the figure he was addressing to the hallway and back every few seconds, fingers clenching and unclenching nervously.

             "Just gimmie another couple of seconds and…yes, I found them!" The girl at the desk appeared to be glowing faintly from her face and arms, the only skin exposed by the hospital-blue shirts and pants she wore. She stuck a pale yellow hand into the cabinet and plucked out a pair of folders, tucking them under her arm. 

            "Then let's go! I am not going back into that cell." The boy stepped out into the hall and held the door open with an outstretched arm.

            "I know Jim, I know. You took care of the electronic records, right? So this should be it…no trace of us once we're gone." Christy jogged out of the room, pushing the door out of his hand and letting it close behind them. The pale light from her skin created dancing shadows on the walls as they away from the office.

            "Yeah Chris, I did." Jim peered around the corner at the end of the gray-on-gray walls. "I stashed the stuff out on the training course this morning during second session." He whispered as they continued on towards the imposing steel doors at the end of the hall. "With what I swiped, we should be able to get at least two hundred miles from here by tomorrow night."

            "And you got my cloak, right? I can't really go anywhere without that, ya know." Christy sighed and wiggled her fingers in front of her face absently, watching the trails of light the motion left in the air.

            "Uh huh, of course." Jim stopped before the doors, staring at his reflection in the black coated glass. He'd be able to grow his hair out, he realized, reaching up to run his fingers through the brownish mess. 

            "Hey, stop starin' at yourself." Christy gave him a shove, pushing him into the doors, which opened smoothly into the crisp night air under his weight.

            "Christy! Damn it…the alarm might have gone off!" Jim stumbled a step or two, as he spun around to glare at her. "You should be more careful."

            "Hey, I trusted you had it all worked out. See? That was just faith." She grinned at him and stepped out into the night air, her skin seeming all the more luminescent in the moonlight. 

             "…I hate you." He glared at her , though there was a faint smile on his face, then they both turned and jogged across the front lawn. The building they had exited was an imposing four story stone square, featureless except for the front doors. 

            The lawn appeared to be a complicated playground, littered with various jungle-gym equipment. The two avoided touching any of these things as they ran across, sliding to a stop before a chain-link fence.

             "I never understood this fence; all that technology and then a fence. It's so anti-climactic." Christy said as she reached out and ran her hands over the cold metal. 

             "Better a fence then something we _can't_ climb over, glow-worm." Jim had disappeared into the bushes, and he emerged with a large brown gym bag. He tugged a simple black cloak from it and tossed it to the glowing girl, then swung the bag over his shoulder.

            Christy stopped to catch the cloak, pulling it over her shoulders as she twisted around to peer back at the building they had just exited. "I wish we could have gotten the others out. Betsy or Devon would have gone in an instant."

             "We can't be sure of that, Chris. Besides, the alarms would have gone off if more then two cell doors were opened at once. I couldn't change that, it was hard enough just to get ours open at all." Jim grabbed the fence and started hauling himself up and over it.

             "I know, I know." She sighed, leaving the hood down, her long white-blonde hair hanging down her back as she followed him up the fence. 

            Just as the two of them were dropping off the other side, every light in the compound flared to life, the internal alarms blaring so loudly they could hear them through the walls.

             "Oh hell," Both teenagers stared at the building for a moment, then turned and took off into the woods. 

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            Five minutes later, as they picked their way through the forest that overlooked highway seventy-three, they heard the helicopters. 

             "Damn it. They're gonna just gas the whole area, you know." Jim shouted over to Christy as he moved over to the edge of the hill, peering down at the highway. "I'm gonna go get us a ride." He turned and started down the hill, his form seeming to shimmer and fade and then vanish halfway down.

             "Alright. I'll…try to hold them off." Christy watched him disappear before she tugged her hood up to limit the amount of light that drifted from her pale face and yellow eyes. She closed her eyes as she listened to the helicopters approaching. She knew the company had two of them, kept on the roof in case of emergencies. If she could stop one, then maybe…

            She moved to the edge of the hill, flexing her fingers as she watched the sky, and waited.

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            Jim dropped onto the side of the road with a thud, then froze as he heard the sound of an engine from around the corner. He stepped back into the grass and stood as still as he could as a black van came around the corner, moving slowly, two men in full black combat gear peering out the windows. He focused, concentrating, to keep his power working. 

            They had been training him to hide every type of heat while he was invisible, to ensure that nothing but the most intensive scan would find him. He'd picked it up rather quickly, but pretended not to. Hopefully they would just try the Infra-red scanner instead of bothering with the high density ones.

            He held his breath as the van approached but did not slow down. It was working! The van came before him, passing so close he could read the "Manrin Juvenile Detention Center" logo on the side…and kept going, disappearing a few moments later around the next bend. Jim let out a breath and almost dropped onto his rear, staring at the space where the van had been.

             "Thank God…" He muttered, His concentration slipping in his relief, causing him to flicker into view for a split second. "Stupid," he chastised himself.

            He stood and dusted himself off, standing next to the road and waiting. A few moments later a large tractor trailer came around the corner, causing Jim to grin. These guys gave rides, right? He let himself reappear and stepped out onto the road, waving to the driver. 

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            Christy counted to twenty after the helicopter appeared above the trees before she brought her hands up above her head. As she continued to count her hands became brighter and brighter, an aura of yellow light seeping from her fingers. When she reached thirty her eyes opened and she let out her breath, slamming her hands together. A beam of light flared out from them, lancing up through the trees and into the back of the helicopter, cutting through the second propeller and sending the vehicle spinning out of control. She watched it spin out of control, tumbling into the trees off to the left. She stared until she felt the heavy vibration of the vehicle hitting the ground, then turned and ran down the hill after Jim.

            He was standing next to a stopped truck, holding the passenger side door open and waving to her. She didn't even stop, simply jumped past him and up next to the thirty-something driver, who offered her a slightly confused smile. "…What's going on out there?" His accent was southern, and the battered looking cap on his head claimed he was a Braves fan.

             "We don't know." Jim answered as he climbed into the truck and closed the door. "But we saw some people earlier in the trees." He looked at Christy and grinned. "I told him how we got lost hiking, _honey._" The emphasis on the last syllable almost made the girl laugh. "I think we must have wandered into a government training area or something."

            The driver looked skeptical, but nodded, leaning forward to peer up at the woods, then pulled the truck into gear and started down the road. 

             "Well, it'll be an hour or two before we get where I'm goin'. You two can sleep in the back if you want." He thumbed back towards a simple cot in the small room behind the seats. 

            Christy nodded again. "Thank you. I was afraid we'd be lost out there. I told you hiking was a bad idea." She lightly hit Jim in the shoulder, and the other teen just smiled as they both moved to sit in the back, leaving the driver to sing along to his radio.

             "You shot down the helicopter? I felt the crash." Jim whispered once they were in the back, and the blonde girl nodded. 

             "I had to! It'll keep them busy…and hey, at least I won't glow for a little while." She brought an arm out of her cloak, and while she was still very pale, her skin looked dark and normal. "Where is he taking us, anyway?" She crawled to the back of the cot and settled in against the wall.

             "He said he'd take us as far as some place called Bayville, in Massachusetts. It has a train-station, he said. We can get pretty much anywhere from there." Jim set his bag down on the floor and sat next to her with a sigh. "I guess we pulled it off."

             "I hope so."

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            If there was one thing Logan did not like, it was being woken up in the middle of the night by voices in his head. He'd adjusted to it, of course, but every time it happened he had nightmares when he eventually got back to bed. Not that he ever got back to bed during the same _week_ when this happened.

            "So Chuck, what's so important you had to drag me out of bed? I was dreamin'." His bare feet slapped against the cold metal of the Cerebro chamber as he approached the bald man he called Boss.

            Charles Xavier glanced over his shoulder at Logan, then back to the panel. "As much as you enjoy your dreams of battle with Sabretooth, Wolverine, I suspect this is more important." He taped a few buttons on the panel and a map appeared on the monitor. "I have been picking up mutant signatures from that facility up north again."

            Logan stopped next to the chair and looked at the panel . "We checked that place out, though. No mutants, and the signals stopped."

            "Yes, I know. But perhaps…well, I can not speculate on why they stopped, but these two mutants were outside of the compound. I was going to send you to investigate, but then they began moving down route seventy-three."

            "Which brings them here." Logan sighed and rubbed at his eyes. "Sometimes I think this place is a mutant-magnet." 

            Xavier smiled knowingly and brought up several satellite surveillance photos on the screen. "They appear to be in a delivery truck coming towards town. And their was an explosion near the compound earlier. I want you to go investigate what happened." The small panel-printer under the computer began churning out a sheet of paper.

            "And if they _don't_ stop in town? You gonna send anyone to meet them?"

            "No. I want to see what they do. If they do not stop in town, then we will go after them. But we can handle that. I need to you go up to that facility and report back as soon as you can." Xavier handed him the print-out, then shut down the computer.

            Logan stared at the paper for a moment before stuffing it into his pocket. "Fine. But you owe me sleep."

Chapter 1 – Welcome to Bayville          

12:30 PM, Bayville High

Kurt Wagner, acrobat, x-man and teenager, braced himself, his whole body tensing as he leapt to the left. It was just like training, just relax and dodge. He felt the projectile shoot past his ear, as he spun, landing on his feet a moment later to the sound of a splat behind him. Then he grinned.

            "Ha! You missed! And you wasted your cupcake!" He straightened up and pointed two holographic fingers at Kitty, who was sitting across the park bench from him, a sour expression on her face. The two of them were seated at a picnic bench outside of the high school, enjoying the shade of a tree that now had cupcake sliding down its trunk  .

            "Damn it Kurt! If you're going to tease me at least let me get even, it's no fun otherwise." Kitty crossed her arms over her pink tank-top and stared at her lunch-plate.

            "Well, you should've known better then to throw something at an acrobat! I am used to dodging things, remember?" Kurt dropped back into his seat and pushed his own cupcake across the table to her. "Just don't throw that one, yes?" He scooped up his sandwich as Kitty grabbed the cupcake and took a bite, muttering something that might have been "fine" through the pastry. 

            "And don't talk with your mouth full! Why, if your parents knew they would just…die and…" Kurt seemed to stare at a space behind Kitty's head for several seconds, then back to her. "And…wait…what was I talking about?"

            Kitty Pryde sighed and swallowed her mouthful of cupcake, looking at him with a slightly tired expression. "Amanda just walked behind me, didn't she?"

            "Uh…no?" Kurt gave the false answer a try. It couldn't hurt, right?

            "Liar. How come she isn't eating lunch with us today, anyway?" Kitty took another bite of her cupcake and twisted around to see Kurt's girlfriend disappearing into the cafeteria. 

            "Oh, she is finishing up some project. It's really no big deal. She said she'll still come to the mall with us after school."

            "Goody. Did you round up Scott or Jean to drive us?" Kitty scooped up all her trash and dumped it on Kurt's tray. 

            "Nien, but the professor gave me bus fair. So we'll be fine. What about Rogue, is she still coming?" Kurt took the tray and climbed out of his bench to dump it in the trashcan nearby.

            "She said something about wanting to go write," Kurt shook his head as he took a bite of his sandwich. "I'm supposed to pick her up some more eye-liner."

            "Purple, I assume?"

            "Of course; what else?"

            "We should see if we can find some pink. Just to see what she does."

            Both teenagers laughed at the rather disturbing mental picture of the goth girl wearing anything pink as they headed towards the cafeteria doors. 

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            That afternoon the two of them, plus Amanda, were perched on the bench at the bus station, staring down the street at the passing traffic. 

            "Yeah, so Logan left sometime last night. We don't know where he went, but rumor has it that there was a big explosion up north and the professor thinks there were mutants involved." Kurt rambled to Amanda, who seemed to be staring at his face without actually hearing him.

            "Kurt! We aren't supposed to tell anyone about that." Kitty threw a pebble at him, which he reached out and blocked with his palm, a slightly confused expression on his face.

            "But…it's just Amanda. She's at the mansion all the time anyway." He pointed at his girlfriend in explanation, and Kitty just sighed.

            "Fine, fine…here comes the bus. At least don't talk about it in there, alright? No need to advertise where we're from…"

            "Alright. We'll make out instead." Amanda said teasingly, getting to her feet.

            "Gah! Not what I meant!" Kitty glared at the both of them before turning and staring intently at the bus, which was a block or so away and could not get to them fast enough. Damn couples. It wasn't any fun if Lance wasn't around.

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            "CD store!"

            "What?" Kitty stopped and glanced back at Kurt, who was bouncing on the balls of his feet and pointing at the nearby music store.

            "You were gonna walk past. You can not walk past the CD store," Kurt calming explained, gesturing towards the offending store. "We have to go in." Kurt pointed again then let his hand drop to his side. Amanda had ducked into the book store, promising to catch up, while Kitty and Kurt had continued walking. 

            "But you weren't planning on getting a CD, and I am not planning on getting a CD, so-"

            "That doesn't matter!" Kurt cut her off and grinned. "We _have_ to go in. It's an unwritten law of the mall. And I think that CD I want came out yesterday." He turned and darted into the store, leaving the mutant girl to follow after him, shaking her head.

            Kurt was staring at the new releases rack, reading the various pop band names with something akin to pretentious disdain, when Kitty caught up with him. 

            "When did music start to suck?" He commented as the brunette stepped past him to pick up some recent boy-band release.

            "Hey, this stuff does _not_ suck. And that band you like is on this rack too." She pointed at the bottom shelf with the corner of her CD.

            "Fine, why does _most_ of the music suck? Mostly what you buy." The boy grinned at her as he leaned down to scoop up the aforementioned album.

            "You just don't have any taste! This stuff is happy and upbeat and-"

            "Pre-packaged garbage the singers didn't write themselves?" He finished her sentence and received a slap to the shoulder as reward. "Ach! That hurt."

            "You deserved it, furball." Kitty grinned and they both returned to reading the backs of their respective CDs. 

            After a moment Kurt glanced over at her, grinning, then back to his CD. "Teeny-bopper."

            "Philistine," Kitty didn't even glance up as she responded.

            "Conformist."

            "Wanna-be Rebel."

            "Barbi-Hey!"

            Kurt trailed off as someone grabbed the CD he was looking at from his hand. The culprit was a girl dressed in a heavy looking black cloak. Kurt could only tell because strands of pale yellow hair were drifting out of the front as she held the CD up to her hood with a gloved hand. 

            "Thanks! This is the last one, and I'm just _dying_ to hear it!" Kurt just stared as the cloaked girl turned and headed over to the counter to pay. 

            "Uhm…aren't you going to stop her?" Kitty asked a moment later as the shock passed. That had been very random.

            "Well, I didn't really want it _that_ badly." Kurt said as he watched the girl pay. 

            "You mentioned it a couple weeks ago, Kurt. You were going to buy it." Kitty poked him in the side lightly.

            "Ja, but…" He trailed off, then shook his head. "I wonder why she's wearing that cloak thing."

            "Maybe she's cold." Kitty shrugged, but started to watch the figure with a bit of interest. It _was_ rather odd.

            "Or maybe she's a mutant." Kurt grinned. "I mean, maybe she's the one the professor sensed last night. He did say they were coming into Bayville."

            "But…why would a mutant involved in some explosion come into the mall?"

            "If I had to guess, I would say to buy that cd." Kitty started to respond, but Kurt was suddenly distracted by the appearance of Amanda at the entrance to the store. "I'll be back in a second."

            "Uhm…alright." Kitty watched him go, before she turned back and watched the cloaked girl pay for her CD and start to leave the store. Kitty looked at the new releases rack again, before she let out an exasperated breath, tossed her CD on the shelf and ran after the cd-swiper.

            "Aren't you hot?" She asked, coming up besides the girl and walking along with her. The hood twisted, perhaps as the girl looked at her, then went back to staring at the CD.

            "Aren't _you _cold? You aren't wearing much at all." At the others response, Kitty glanced down at her tanktop and shorts. Hey, they were decent! She pursed her lips and smirked.

            "It's the middle of September! So no, I'm not cold. You swiped my friends CD back there. He was gonna buy that." She reached out to tap it, but the girl yanked it out of reach and tucked it away inside her cloak.

            "He should'a said something when I grabbed it, then." Kitty could almost sense the cloaked girl grinning under her hood, and for some reason it infuriated her. 

            "Yeah, well, he's polite…somethin' you obviously aren't, and wouldn't just snap at someone even when they _do_ take his stuff." Kitty put her hands on her hips, looking up at the girl and suddenly feeling rather short. The cloaked girl turned to face her, and Kitty could see a pair of yellow eyes shimmering inside the hood.

            "I don't want any trouble, alright? Just leave me the hell alone. He can get the CD tomorrow." She pointed a black-gloved finger at Kitty before she turned and stormed off into the crowd.

            "Yeah, but…" Kitty started to follow after her when Kurt and Amanda walked over.

            "What was that all about?" Amanda gave the mutant girl a _look_ before she stood on her tip-toes to peer into the crowd after the cloaked girl.

            "She had yellow eyes. Like flashlights." Kitty seemed lost in thought, and Kurt gave her a poke in the side. 

            "Hey, Kit? Earth to Kitty."

            "What? Oh…yeah." Kitty nodded vaguely, staring after the girl, then twisted to look at Kurt and his girlfriend . "I'll…catch up with you two back at the mansion, okay? Bye!" And she disappeared into the crowd.

            "Uh…bye Kitty…" Kurt waved after her, then exchanged a confused expression with Amanda.

            Amanda hooked her arm through Kurts, "you have the strangest friends, fuzzy."

Kurt just shook his head. 

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            There was one advantage to Kitty's power that she absolutely adored. She could suspend herself within solid objects, sticking just an ear or the front of her face out, and listen and watch while rarely being noticed. She picked up more gossip this way…

            Kitty had followed the cloaked girl out of the mall, through the parking lot and into the back alley where she had ducked into a dumpster to listen.

            "Jim?" The cloaked girl had stopped a few yards from the dumpster, and she reached up and tugged off her hood as she spoke. Kitty almost fell out of the dumpster. The girl's face was glowing like a nightlight, her hair was the whitest blonde she had ever seen, and her eyes were the color of the sun. 

            "Put your hood back up! What if someone sees you?" Suddenly, the girl's hood was shoved back on her head and a boy dressed in a pair of blue jeans and a black t-shirt faded into view next to her. Kitty _did_ fall out of the dumpster then…but thankfully backwards, and she was hidden again a moment later. 

            ~Professor? I found the two mutants you told us about.~ Kitty tried to project the way Xavier had taught her, but she had no idea if it would actually work. So she listened.

            "Hey! No one is going to come back here…and do you have any idea how _hot_ this thing is? I mean, I love the heat but…" The cloaked girl sighed, and the one she had called Jim put his arm around her. 

            "It's just till we find some place safe, Christy. Okay? Only a little while longer, I promise." He smiled and gave her a squeeze, then started to pace. "Did you get it?" 

            "Yeah, here." The CD was drawn out and handed over the to the boy who had just appeared. "So what are we going to do now?"

            "Thank you. God, I missed music. I got so tired of that elevator shit they pumped into our cells." Jim flipped the CD over to read the back, glancing up at her second question. "We wait. There isn't another southern train until two in the morning…it's a boxcar train heading all the way to Georgia, we should be alright on that. I found a coffee shop we can hang out in…" Kitty frowned as the boy talked. So they were leaving…the professor would probably want to speak to them before that, and…

            ~Kitty?~ Suddenly, Xaviers voice was echoing through her head. ~Watch them, Kitty. I am sending someone to meet you. Do not lose them…approach them if you must.~

            ~Yes professor,~  Kitty watched as the two mutants began making their way towards the end of the alley. She could throw some trash maybe…oh, screw it. She phased her way through the side of the dumpster, stepping up a few feet before them and waving.

            "Hi again," she tried to smile as the two teenagers backed up a step instinctively, Jim almost falling before he vanished.

            "You…what do you… you're a mutant?" Christy's yellow eyes glared out from under her hood, at Kitty took an unconscious step backwards, nodding.

            "Y…yeah, I am." She tucked her fingers into the pockets of her shorts, trying to smile again. "You two are also, right? I'm from the Xav…" She was choked off as an something wrapped around her neck, and she felt herself get tugged backwards and off the ground.

            "Who are you? Did _they_ send you? Talk, or I'll…" Jim's voice hissed into her ear, and Kitty flinched away, phasing through his arm. She caught herself on the edge of the dumpster and moved several feet away, turning to face them both, hands on her hips.

            "You'll what? I'm not here to fight you." She couldn't help but smile at their stunned expressions. The boy had seen her phase through the dumpster, they should have been smart enough to know that wouldn't work. "Who are you talking about? Who is after you?"

            "We…we're…" Christy started to talk, hooded gaze tilting towards the ground, but Jim cut her off with a wave of his arm.

            "Shut up! She's probably lying…you know how tricky they are, Christy. We have to be careful." He glared from one girl to the other, then grabbed Christy by the arm and pulled her towards the end of the alley. "Come on, we're leaving. If you really don't want a fight you won't follow us!"

            Kitty took a couple step after them, reaching one hand out. "But wait…I…" and they were gone around the corner. She sighed and leaned back against the dumpster, rubbing at her eyes.

            ~Professor. They're leaving…I can't stop them without fighting. They said something about the trainyard.~ She projected again, keeping her eyes closed so she could focus.

            ~Alright Kitty.~ The professor's voice echoed back to her a few moments later, a slight edge to it. ~Jean and Scott will be there in a few minutes. Go with them, follow the two mutants.~

            ~Yes Professor. Is something else wrong?~ 

            ~I just spoke with Logan. He is up near the facility where the explosion occurred last night. Apparently a pair of flying mutants left the compound coming here several minutes ago. I have tracked them with Cerebro, and they are traveling very quickly. They will be here shortly.~

            ~Oh…are they from the same place? Are they after these two?~ She started towards the end of the alleyway, opening her eyes enough that she wouldn't walk into anything. 

            ~I do not know, they are moving to fast for me to read their minds. But I can only assume they are.~

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            "You saw her shoulder! She didn't have a tattoo. Maybe she was telling the truth!" Christy muttered over to her companion as they ran down a side street, heading towards the train yards that Jim had found earlier in the day. 

            "Maybe, but do you want to take that chance? I'm not going back to that cell, Chris. Not for a hunch, or a stranger. Not even for you." He took a breath, trying to avoid the hurt expression on her face. "Look, we can't afford to trust _anyone_. Not right now. Not until they give up looking for us."

            "But…they won't. Why would they stop? They can track us with the psychics, and even if that doesn't work they'll find us eventually. We _will_ need help."

            "We can take care of ourselves. We got away, didn't we?" Jim growled, stopping at the end of a street and peering from one end to the other quickly. 

            "We got lucky, Jim." Christy eyed him nervously. "You do know where you're going, right?"

            "I think so. Come on."

            He grabbed her wrist and picked a direction.

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            Half an hour later they dropped down on the other side of the fence into the train yard, peering around in the fading light.

            "Alright…the train should be near the far end of the lot." Jim pointed, swinging his bag over his shoulder as he started to walk. "It'll take us pretty far south. We should be safer down there."

            "I hope so. I'm still not sure we should've run away from that girl, you know. She was a mutant, and if she isn't with…them…then she might have been able to help us."

            "Stop thinking about it, we did the right thing." Jim glanced back at her, trying to sound reassuring. "We couldn't stay here anyway. We're not far enough away."

            "No, you really aren't, children. I thought I taught you better then this." A voice from the top of a nearby box car brought them both to a halt, and a moment later a green haired woman dropped to the ground before them.

            "…Polaris! They sent _you_ after us?" Jim just stared…he had expected a student, maybe Devon or Danielle, but Polaris? The woman was tall and thin, dressed in a grey trench coat, a pair of black pants and a blue shirt, her bare hands resting on her hips.

            "You caused quite a stir, children. Of course they sent me after you." She shook her head sadly. "I'm supposed to bring you back, if I can. Or kill you. But I don't know…" Polaris glanced up at the box car again. "What do you think, Shockwave?"

            A teenager, with dirty blonde hair, dressed in a bright green coat himself…all of his clothing was green, in fact…dropped to the ground next to Polaris. "Kill'em! Kill'em so I can go home. I'm missing my cartoons." He reached a gloved hand out, clenching his fingers, and Jim and Christy found themselves being lifted off the ground in a telekinetic vice.

            "No!" Christy struggled, trying to tug her cloak off, trying to get a hand free…anything. She wasn't going to die like this. She could see Jim doing the same thing nearby as Shockwave stalked towards them. He was one of the more ruthless of the syndicates pupils, taken at a very young age, and one of the few people Christy was truly afraid of. "Please…"

            "Oh, you're gonna beg!" Shockwave grinned, flexing his hands again, and Christy felt the telekinetic grip tighten around her. "Beg for me, Flare, come on."

            "D…don't call me that…" She growled, but she could feel herself weakening. Polaris would do something, right? The woman couldn't have really been told to just kill them. But the green haired woman was just watching, arms crossed, a smirk on her face. 

            A loud crack sounded from nearby and Jim let out a cry, going limp in the air, eyes rolling back into his head. Christy twisted her neck enough to see, eyes watering from with tears and going red with the pain. He…couldn't be dead, could he?

            Suddenly a beam of light shot past her face, blood red against the pink tint of her vision, and slammed into Shockwave, sending him tumbling backwards into Polaris as all four of them plummeting to the ground. 

            Christy just lay there, staring at the evening sky, when the girl from earlier suddenly stuck her head into Christy's line of sight. "Hi! Relax. We're here to help. Just…relax." She smiled reassuringly and Christy nodded, unable to form words. 

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            By the time the three X-men had caught up to the two teens, they had already been in the grip of the strange telekinetic. Jean had been tracking them as best she could, and she'd sensed the arrival of the other two mutants but hadn't expected to come across them like this.

            "~Scott, they're both conscious, be careful.~ She mentally shouted out to Cyclops as he walked between Jim and Christy, hand on his visor, gaze resting steady on the green-haired woman and the telekinetic.

            "Check on him," was Scott's only response, pointing at the injured Jim, then moved to stand a few feet from Polaris and Shockwave, who were slowly pushing themselves to their feet. "Don't move."

            Polaris glared at him as she pushed herselt to her feet. "The X-men…This isn't any of your concern, hero. Go away before you get more then you can handle." The green haired woman dusted herself off, smirking. Several small chunks of metal spun up into the air and began a slow circle around her head. 

            "Who are you? Why are you attacking these two?" Scott eyed the spinning pieces of metal, and felt the comforting grip of Jean's telekinetic shield as the redhead reached out and encased him in it. ~Just to be safe.~ He heard her voice in his head, but didn't respond.

            "I am their teacher. That is all you need to know. Now leave." Shockwave had picked himself off the ground and seemed to be readying to charge Scott, but Polaris held up a hand to stop him. "We do not wish to fight you. But we will if we must."

            "The same goes for us, lady. Now take your lackey there and go. If these two are running away from you, they probably have a good reason." Scott tapped his visor to emphasize his words, a small optic blast flashing out to catch one of the metal chunks and vaporizing it above Polaris's head. 

            "You don't know what you're getting into, boy." Polaris narrowed her eyes and raised a hand, seemingly preparing to hurl the metal chunks at Cyclops…but then let it drop, the metal falling to the ground. "But you shall find out. Come Shockwave, we're going home."

            "What? We're running away?" Shockwave looked stunned, looking from Polaris to the X-men and back. "We can't just run away!"

            "We aren't running away, we'll be back." She pointed a finger at Cyclops. "You've signed your own death warrant, X-man. We chose to ignore you before but now…" She simply smiled and launched herself into the air, followed a moment later by Shockwave. In a minute, they were gone.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

            Scott let out a sigh of relief, his hand dropping away from his visor as he turned back to Kitty and Jean. Kitty was helping the cloaked girl to her feet while Jean lifted Jim into the air on a telekinetic field. 

            "How are they?" He asked, jogging the few feet back towards them.

            "She'll be alright, but his four of his ribs are broken." Jean pointed at the floating boy. "We need to get him back to the mansion."

            "The…what?" Christy was leaning against Kitty, her hood still draped down over her face. She seemed to have a knack for making sure her skin was hidden.

            "Mansion. It's where we live. You'll be safe there." Kitty smiled reassuringly at her, then turned to guide her towards the jeep.

*~* To be Continued *~*

((.And…there we have it. I know I posted this before, ages and ages ago, but it's cleaned up now and hopefully people will actually READ it. Hopefully.

Please? And review! I do so like the reviews.))


	2. Questions and Nightmares

Chapter 2 – Questions and Nightmares

11:45 PM, Xavier Mansion

Hours later Rogue, Kurt and Kitty were sprawled out on the couches in the rec room as Kitty related the events from earlier in the day.

"…so we found them at the train yard, right? And they're being attacked by this green haired woman and a kid. Jean says the kid in green was a TK, but she wasn't sure what the other did. She was twirling little chunks of metal around her head…" Kitty shrugged and settled back onto the couch.

"Scott shot the green one and then they both ran off, after sayin' something about having ignored us 'till now.' And then…we came back and the professor and Hank took them downstairs."

"Weird. Maybe she's a magnetic mutant, like Magneto." Rogue had a magazine in her lap and was pretending to flip through it as she listened. "Maybe they're related."

"Ja…she had green hair, though. Well, who knows?" Kurt shrugged, then glanced over at Kitty with a grin. "Sorry I didn't come with you, though. I missed out on all the fun."

"Oh right. I bet you were makin' out with Amanda in the book store, anyway." Kitty teased and Kurt sank down a bit in his seat.

"We were not! We…uh…" Kurt's eyes darted around desperately.

"They were in the coffee shop. He was babblin' bout it to meh earlier," Rogue grinned at her half-brother over the top of her magazine.

"Schwester, I love you dearly, but…" Kurt scooped up a pillow and hurled it at the goth girl, who let out a yelp and blocked it with her magazine, grabbing it off her lap and hurling it back.

This degenerated to the two half-siblings hiding behind various pieces of furniture as they hurled cushions at each other, while Kitty just curled up on the couch laughing.

When Professor Xavier rolled into the room a few minutes later he took a pillow to the face.

"Oh cra…" Rogue rolled out from behind her chair and stared at the pillow she threw. "Uh…Ah'm sorry?" She pushed herself onto her knees. Kurt crawled out from behind the couch, looking sheepish himself.

"It is…alright," Xavier smiled as he picked up the pillow from his lap and tossed it onto a chair.

"So how are they?" Kitty interrupted, figuring that was the safest way to keep her two friends from getting into trouble.

"They are still asleep, Kitty. Hank has wrapped up the boys broken ribs. He will be unable to move for the next few days, but he should be fine. The girl is simply asleep…I believe the events of the last few days have been very hard on her, and the shock of being attacked caused her to pass out. She has been given some sleeping medication, and probably will not wake up for hours."

Kitty was torn between smiling and frowning. "I am glad they're alright…maybe I should stay down there? In case she wakes up."

"I had thought of that, and you may. I took the liberty of telling Hank to place a cot down there. And the phone, because I believe you are expecting a call from Lance?"

Kitty blushed and nodded, "Yeah, I am…thank you."

"Of course. Now then, head on downstairs. And as for the two of you," he fixed his gaze on Rogue and Kurt. "Bed."

"Yessir," Kurt vanished and Kitty disappeared through the wall, leaving Rogue to awkwardly stand and walk past the professor and out of the room.

"G'night."

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"Flare! What did you think you were doing out there?"

Christy's eyes shot open, the voice cutting through her brain like a knife. She was in the locker-room at the compound, half-undressed from the yellow and black uniform she'd been assigned to go with her name, her muscles sore from the afternoon work out.

"W…what?" None of this felt right, somehow. She turned to stare at Polaris as the green-haired instructor stalked across the locker room.

"Don't 'what' me, girl. You gave up three perfectly good kill shots out there." The instructor stopped and pointed towards the back wall, and by association the room where they'd been training all afternoon. "Your powers could have killed them before they had even reached you! What were you thinking?"

"But…" Christy bit her lip and stared up at the woman. "I can't really control the strength of the lasers, ma'am. I could have hurt someone."

"That doesn't matter! The point was to finish the exercise. God…You're gonna do it again tomorrow." Polaris glowered down at Christy, then shoved past her. "And you are NOT going to screw it up." Christy just stared at her as the instructor stalked off. It was not until she'd heard the tell-tale slamming of the door that she turned back to her locker.

She had removed the rest of her uniform and was pulling the hospital blue shirt and pants she had worn every day for the last two and a half years when another student walked up next to her. A short, pointy-eared girl with bright pink hair that spoke with an accent the glowing girl could never quite identify. Christy thought her name was Clarice, but wasn't sure.

"Hey Flare, you alright?" Christy remembered when she loved that name, but now she had to resist the urge to shudder. Still, some of the…dedicated…trainees tended to call each other by their call-names, instead of their real ones.

"Yeah, I'm fine Clarice, just fine." She shrugged and finished dressing. "I got reamed for not using my lasers in the mission."

"Call me Blink. And Polaris did tell us to do whatever we could in order to win." Blink stripped out of her own clothes and sat on the bench, folding the latex uniform before stuffing it into her locker.

"But I didn't want to hurt anyone…I mean, we might be on the same side in tomorrow's mission, or I might even have killed them…" Christy closed her locker and stared at the blue metal.

"But we're supposed to win however we can." Blink actually sounded confused, staring at the other girl. "It doesn't matter about tomorrow. Just today."

"I guess…" Christy sighed and grabbed her bag, stepping past Blink and heading out into the hallway. She'd seen this hallway so many times, but again…something felt wrong. The two guards standing nearby to ensure she returned to her cell, the few students taking their time to walk back to theirs, the slightly pink ceiling lights that Polaris claimed were designed to increase their thought patterns. Everything was always the same…

She waved to the few people she was friends with, avoided the others and slipped back into her cell. A bed, a desk, a lamp, and a dresser full of the three drawers of identical clothing. Everything colored blue. She used to like blue.

She had just sat down to take her shoes off when all the lights went out. Everything was completely silent, the students in the hallway suddenly gone. Even the glow from her skin was gone, leaving her in a darkness she hadn't experienced in years.

"Flare. Do you know what you have done?" The voice made her jump, the sound surrounding her like a blanket.

"W…what?" She clawed at the bed behind her, but it was suddenly gone, and she could feel herself falling.

"You have betrayed us! You tried to escape. We shall teach you what the penalties are, Flare."

"I…I don't understand. What are you talking about…Leave me alone! I'm sorry!" Her arms flailed through the air desperately.

Christy?

"You can never be sorry enough. You have betrayed us. You and Fade both betrayed us. We have already punished him…"

An image of Jim, his body dangling in the air like a puppet, flashed before her eyes.

"No! No…please…I'm sorry!"

Christy!

She covered her face with her hands, trying not to cry as the voice continued to berate her, more images of her friends battered body forced into her mind.

"Please…no…please…"

CHRISTY!

Everything went piercingly white, and she felt her powers burst out from every pore on her body.

"Gah…Christy! Stop it!"

She sat up with a start, feeling the tingling sensation passing through her body from the expenditure of her powers. What in the world? Where was she…? It looked like a bed in ahospital room, and she had an IV attached to her arm.

"Ow…" As she watched, a strange girl crawled up into a chair next to the bed. "God, that was bright. What did you do, Christy?" The voice was familiar, and as she stared at the other, the events from yesterday slowly seeped back into her brain.

"Oh…you're the girl from the mall…I'm…sorry." Christy stared at her hands, almost light-free. "I…didn't blind you, did I?"

"No…I'm just seeing spots. I was trying to wake you up. You were dreaming…" The girl smiled as she rubbed at her eyes. She was wearing a pink nightshirt, her hair back in a ponytail, and there were a pair of glasses hanging from a chain around her neck.

"I…I'm really sorry. I just…the spots should disappear soon." Christy stared at her lap, twisting her fingers together. These people had been nice to her and now she had blinded one of them. "I don't even know your name…"

"Kitty," The girl smiled again, and this time it seemed sincere. "Don't feel bad, though. Sometimes when I have nightmares I fall through my bed."

"You…oh, right. You go through stuff." Christy smiled a little, remembering Kitty walking through the dumpster the day before.

"Yeah, and you apparently glow." The brunette rubbed at her eyes again before she stared at Christy, focusing on her arm. "And are paler then Rogue. Jeez…"

"Rogue? Who is that? And where am I anyway?" Christy started to get up by Kitty gently pushed her back down onto the bed by her shoulders.

"Rogue is…another mutant here. She's kind of a goth. Big on the pale thing, anyway. And you're at the Xavier Institute for Gifted Children."

"Oh…" Christy rubbed at her eyes absently then looked around again, as though willing the walls to disappear so she could see further. "What about Jim? Is he here?"

"Yeah…Doctor McCoy patched him up, he's sleeping in the next room. Gonna be a few days before he's walking around or anything, though. You sure you're alright?"

"What? Oh…yeah, it was just a dream." Christy started to push herself off the bed but Kitty gently shoved her back.

"Hey, you're supposed to stay in bed."

"But I feel fine. I wasn't even that hurt, really. Just a little bruised…Can't I go see Jim now, please?"

"Uhm…let me go ask Dr. McCoy…wait here, alright?" Kitty stood and headed towards the door.

Once Kitty was gone, the injured girl found herself staring at the ceiling, tucking hands tucked behind her head. This was all so very strange. It was obvious this was another group of mutants, almost as organized as the syndicate, yet…everything was so different. In the infirmary back home…well, back at the complex…she would've been told to strip, checked over and given a shot before being told to get dressed and return to her cell. None of this coddling or extra checkups from the doctor.

It would definitely take some getting used to. If she stayed at all.

A few minutes later the door swished open, and Christy forced herself out of her memories to watch Kitty and a large…blue…furry thing walk in behind her. What the hell?  
"Kitty? What's going on? What is that?" Pushing herself up onto her elbows, Christy couldn't help but stare at the man. And now that she looked, it _was_ a man. Physical mutation, huh…

"What?" Kitty looked confused, then laughed. "Oh…this is Doctor McCoy. I know he kind of looks scary, but he's really just a big teddy-bear." The short girl gave the beast a quick hug and then scooted over to perch on the edge of her cot, scooping up her cell-phone and fiddling with it.

Christy tried not to stare, but she couldn't help it. "I haven't seen many physical mutations…" She said as McCoy came over and checked the various monitors attached to the new mutants bed.

"We pop up now and then." Dr. McCoy smiled at her, a decidedly less-frightening face then she'd expected. "Now please lie still."

"But aren't you from some mutant place? I would have thought there'd be other mutants like Beast there." Kitty tilted her head to the side, tugging lightly on her ponytail.

"Well…no." Christy closed her eyes and tried to relax as Beast checked her breathing and pulse. "Physical mutations are considered…defective. They make our differences to obvious. Little ones can be dealt with, like my eyes but…we were instructed to hunt down people like Doctor McCoy." Suddenly Beast plucked out her IV then, getting a faint yelp from the blonde girl.

"Sorry…Christy, wasn't it? Well, you hunt us down, I pluck out your IV…you seem sorry about the whole thing…I get the impression you did not have a choice…you're relieved face proves me right…I forgive you. There, that takes care of about a month of angst in less than a minute." The doctor glanced over at Kitty and smiled. "You teenagers could learn something."

"Nah. We like angst…it keeps us entertained. So, is she good to go?" Kitty stuffed her cell-phone back into her pocket and pushed to her feet.

"I believe so."

"T…thanks. Can I go see Jim then?" Christy sat up quickly and then blinked, rubbing at her eyes to kill the vertigo.

"Wait a few hours, until he wakes up. Kitty can show you around until then."

"Oh…alright, I guess." The blonde sighed and Kitty came over to give her shoulder a squeeze.

"Hey, we can go ransack people's closets for clothing, to keep you distracted." She bounced back a step as Doctor McCoy wandered off, eyeing the new girl. "You're the same size as Rogue…and maybe Tabitha…so we can find ya something."

"What do you mean? I still have my uniform, and…"

"And it's BORING. Don't tell me you _like_ wearing stuff like that. Come on." Kitty grabbed her by the wrist and dragged her out of the infirmary.

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An hour later Kitty was perched on the edge of Rogue's bed, cell phone in her hand, while Christy changed in the nearby bathroom.

"Yeah Lance, she's sort of picking and choosing from everybody's stuff. I get the feeling she's desperate to look as different as she can from all that blue crap they had on. You should meet her though! She's cool. She's all glowy."

"Glowy?" Kitty pictured Lance hunched down in his desk in the back of fourth period calculus. "Like, sex glowy?"

Kitty blushed and shook her head into the phone, giggling. "No, no. Her powers, they make her all…light-bright-ish. She glows. You'll have to see it."

"Alright, well I was thinkin' about blowing off the rest of the day anyway. Want me to come by? We could have lunch."

"Lance! You said you weren't going to do that anymore."

"Come'on Kitty-cat, I've been good for a whole month. Just let me skip, we can have lunch…you can call it my reward for behaving and all."

Kitty sighed. It was so hard to refuse things from Lance. "Fine, fine. Why not. We'll meet here in a…wow." Kitty trailed off as Christy stepped back into the room, her hospital blue clothing in a pile in her hand. She'd showered and brushed out her hair, which actually had some body to it, tumbling down her back in long white-blonde ringlets. She was dressed in a pair of Rogue's black pants, a t-shirt Tabitha had left behind that said "Rub here for Luck", and a pair of Jean's boots.

"What? Does it look bad?" Christy started to turn back towards the bathroom, sending Kitty bolting from the bed to grab her wrist.

"Nono, it looks fine!"

"Kitty? You there?" Lance's voice echoed out from the cell-phone and Kitty took a step back, speaking into the receiver again.

"Yeah, I'm here. I changed my mind, you aren't allowed to meet her."

"What, why?" Lance suddenly sounded confused, and Kitty couldn't help but giggle.

"Cause you won't want me anymore. She's all supermodel-y."

"Oh hush Kit-cat. The teach is comin', I'll see you in half an hour." And he hung up, leaving Kitty to just sigh and slip the phone back into her pocket.

"Who was that?" Christy eyed the other girl curiously as she looked around for somewhere to put her old clothes.

"My boyfriend, Lance," Kitty explained as she took the pile of clothing and dropped it in the hamper in the bathroom. "He's at school, but he's gonna ditch and come have lunch with us."

"Ditch? He can just ditch like that?" For some reason, the idea struck some deep chord inside Christy's head, and she almost shivered. "God, if we skipped classes at the compound…"

"Hey, don't worry about any of that. Yeah, they can skip. Well, they aren't supposed to, but Principal Kelly is gonna kick them all out soon anyway. The professor wants to start a private school here at the Institute…well, more of a school…and the Brotherhood boys will probably end up comin' here too." Kitty shrugged. "So it doesn't really matter, ya know?"

"I guess. I haven't really gone to a regular school in years." The two of them headed down the hallway and towards the kitchen, where Kitty set about trying to figure out what she could 'make' to eat.

"Really? How long were you…at that place?" It was a sensitive subject, she could tell, but she couldn't help but ask.

"Two and a half years. But before that I was bumming around with a gang in Philadelphia and didn't bother going to school, so…"

"I see. Hey, bread! And cheese. I could make sandwiches…maybe." Kitty grinned, tugging out the various foodstuffs and putting them on the counter.

Christy was lost in her own thoughts, just nodding vaguely as the other girl. The back door opened and a tall African woman with long white hair, dressed in a simple skirt and blouse, stepped into the room, snapping her out of her revery.

"Hey Storm! Want a sandwich?" Kitty waved a piece of bread at the woman, who simply smiled and shook her head.

"No thank you, child," her attention seemed focused on Christy, who forced a little smile. Something about the woman reminded her of Polaris. "You must be Christy? The professor told me you would wake up today."

"Y…yes. It's nice to meet you…Storm?" She crossed her arms under her chest, frowning.

"You may call me Ms. Munro, Christy. Or Ororo, if you wish. Welcome to the Institute. I am one of the instructors here."

"Alright. Kitty was just showing me around. What do you teach?" Desperate to make small-talk, she latched onto the first idea she could think of. Education!

"I teach the students to control their powers. We leave most of the general education to the high school."

"Oh…so, this is like a training camp." Christy frowned and let her gaze drift out the window. So it _was_ like the compound. "It reminds me of where I was, except…well, nicer."

"Well, I do not claim to know about where you came from," Storm smiled as Kitty handed her a sandwich. "I hope we are not the type of place you find yourself running away from."

"Yeah…" Christy didn't seem to be listening, and suddenly looked up. "Hey, am I allowed outside?"

"What? Of course child," Storm stepped out of the way, and Christy bolted out the door, leaving Kitty and the weather witch to just shrug at each other.

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Fifteen minutes later, armed with a tray of sandwiches, Kitty found the blonde girl stretched out in the grass of the front lawn, staring at the sky. She was glowing brightly enough that it was visible even in the mid-day sun.

Kitty tried to be quiet as she sat down next to her, holding the tray in her lap until Christy reached over to take one.

"I haven't been outside without my cloak in _forever_." Christy finally said, then bit into her sandwich. "Polaris always said that since I couldn't walk around in public without it, I should just get used to always having it on if I left the building."

"That sucks." Kitty munched on her own sandwich, pushing the tray onto the grass between them. "No one really cares at the institute. I mean, in town it matters, we hide but here it's just…who we are, ya know?"

"I guess. God, I missed the sun." Christy had already finished her sandwich, tucking her hands behind her head. "So where is this Lance person we were supposed to eat with?"

"He'll be here. Has to sneak out of the school, and Principal Kelly's been watching us all like hawks recently."

"He's your boyfriend?" Christy sat up and stretched again, twisting in her spot to face the sun.

Kitty blushed , then shrugged. "…Sorta? We never really specified. What about you and Jim?"

Christy laughed, wrapping her hands around her knee and tugging it up against her chest. "No way. I've known him since I was little…we got picked up at the same time. He's like my brother."

"Ah…right." The other girl smiled to herself.

"And what's the Brotherhood? You mentioned the 'Brotherhood Boys.'" Christy flopped onto her back again, stretching out her arms as she asked.

"They are…another group like us. It's complicated. We tend to get into a lot of fights with them, honestly. But they aren't really bad kids. Lance is in them." Kitty took a small bite of her sandwich.

"I see. And they would come to school here?"

"Maybe."

"You think I could go see him now?" Christy suddenly hopped to her feet, spinning around to peer down at the Kitty.

"See who?" Kitty peered up at her.

"Jim. Maybe he woke up."

"Uhm…yeah, probably. Just ask Doctor McCoy." Kitty stood as well, dusting off her pants. "You want to go ask him?"

"But…" The glowing girl waved a hand towards the gates. "We're waiting for your boyfriend."

"Hey, don't worry. I can wait for Lance by myself, he'll get here eventually. Go on." Kitty reached out and gave her a little push, then headed for the front gate, tugging out her cellphone.

"Alright. Thanks!" Christy ran back inside.

Doctor McCoy was at his desk when Christy reappeared in the infirmary, and he offered her a smile as she ran over to him. She seemed to be glowing much brighter then she had when he left. He hoped that was a good thing.

"Can I see Jim now?" The girl pointed over his shoulder and he nodded, setting his pencil down.

"Yes, but he isn't awake yet. He probably won't wake up for a few more hours."

"I can wait." She half-smiled and slipped past him, disappearing into the room where Jim was sleeping.

"I will get you a chair, then." Beast called out after her, shaking his head.

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Well, there you go. I know it's short, but I've been busy. Theoretically there will be more action in the next few chapters…particularly as I get more into the villains.

Next time: New mutants! Brotherhood! Some other stuff, too.

Tigue, Jlee: Thank you for your compliments on the characters! Christy's my baby, when it comes to OC's, and Jim is fun too…although he's been asleep a lot. Poor kid.

Silver Kitsune: I haven't honestly found a good spot to describe Jim. I will, but since he's out of commission at the moment it's hard. It'll show up eventually.

And for the record, FF.net's new edit program SUCKS. It keeps eating my asterix and symbols.


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